Margaret Mahy

Author profile

born

March 21, 1936 in Whakatane, New Zealand

gender

female

genre

Children's Books

About this author

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Margaret Mahy is a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.

Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. She has written a little less than 50 novels, including the recent Alchemy in 2002. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaa...more

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Books by Margaret Mahy

Average rating: 3.87 · 5,515 ratings · 716 reviews · 189 distinct works

	The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance 4.18 avg rating — 954 ratings — published 1984 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy, Mou-Sien Tseng (Illustrations) 3.96 avg rating — 337 ratings — published 1990 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy, Polly Dunbar (Illustrator) 4.03 avg rating — 239 ratings — published 1992 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Tricksters 3.95 avg rating — 243 ratings — published 1987 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Maddigan's Fantasia 3.52 avg rating — 211 ratings — published 2006 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Alchemy 3.38 avg rating — 187 ratings — published 2003 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Catalogue of the Universe by Margaret Mahy, Darren Hopes (Illustrator) 3.75 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 1985 — 13 editions	My rating:
	The Haunting 3.80 avg rating — 152 ratings — 12 editions	My rating:
	Memory 3.71 avg rating — 89 ratings — 10 editions	My rating:
	A Lion In The Meadow 4.19 avg rating — 70 ratings — published 1969 — 4 editions	My rating:

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Interviews

December 2009, Margaret Mahy
" Quick Start SS: How would you describe your life in only 8 words? MM: Busy,tangled, full of guesswork,excited by ideas SS: What is your motto or maxim? MM: Every grain of sand is a mystery Get more on Margaret Mahy at SimonandSchuster.com..." ...More

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Quotes by Margaret Mahy

“Reading is very creative - it's not just a passive thing. I write a story; it goes out into the world; somebody reads it and, by reading it, completes it.”
― Margaret Mahy

tags: reading , writing

13 people liked it

“It changes you for ever, but you are changing for ever anyway.”
― Margaret Mahy, The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance

tags: change , changing , growth

10 people liked it

“I'm the Beast. You're the Beauty," he said. "It's all a story, isn't it?”
― Margaret Mahy, Maddigan's Fantasia

tags: garland , timon , timon-and-eden

7 people liked it

See all Margaret Mahy's quotes »

Polls

October Poll for Categroy Two: Horror/Halloween theme.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

37 votes, 41.1%

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

20 votes, 22.2%

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

16 votes, 17.8%

Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney

5 votes, 5.6%

Changeover A Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy

5 votes, 5.6%

The Devouring by Simon Holt

4 votes, 4.4%

The Owl Service Alan Garner

3 votes, 3.3%

90 total votes

1 comment

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Novel Ladies: 15 books you will always treasure	39	50	Oct 12, 2009 07:59pm
Adults who love Y...: Favorite YA Books	31	29	Jan 27, 2010 09:39am
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